Christmas in Winnipeg

Today we celebrated Christmas in Winnipeg - a beautiful snowy, white Christmas :)

Christmas Baking

December is here and now I can admit to listening to Christmas music and Christmas baking :)  Technically I've been listening to Christmas music since Nov. 1st, but since we are coming home mid-December to celebrate, it felt ok.  Plus, playing Christmas music in stores here is not really a thing, so there was none of that threat of accidental over-exposure.  It's what I'm telling myself.

So today, since it is basically Christmas now, I decided to give in to one of the many pinterest recipes that have been tempting me, and bake (or put-together) these cookie-dough truffles.  Oh man.  Pretty good.  Also, they are incredibly easy because there actually isn't any baking; and if you remember to take the butter out of the fridge early, you can easily mix everything by hand in one bowl.  Yay for easy to make, easy to clean recipes!  (minus the chocolate coating..luckily I have an amazing husband who is cleaning the chocolate dishes as I type.  :) I <3 him)

So:
flour, butter, white & brown sugar, salt, vanilla and chocolate chips:

I couldn't find mini chocolate chips here, so I just used regular ones that I tried to chop up - it worked fine even if it meant this one guy got a little mangled when I tried to cut it for a picture.  But whatever, you eat them whole anyway :)
One batch made almost 7 dozen of these! mmmmm sugar overdose here I come!

And here is the link to the original recipe that I found on pinterest (as usual hers look much better! But I didn't have chocolate candy coating so I had to improvise with chocolate chips and vegetable oil)

Also in the Christmas spirit we have set up our nativity set  - from Bethlehem!  Thanks Dad and Charlotte!

my favourite are the sheep.

Sirens in Tel Aviv

Well it's been rather intense over here the past week.  Hearing the low wail of the incoming rocket warning sirens, running to a shelter, and hearing missiles exploding, are not things I thought I would experience here!  I can only imagine how horrible life must be for all the people living in southern Israel who have been dealing with living within rocket range for years, and only have a minute or less to find shelter (we have almost 2 minutes).  Or for the innocents in Gaza who have no warning system and no Iron Dome defence system.  I mean, hearing a siren once a day (twice today!) is not ideal, but it's not as scary when you know that a missile defence system, with a fairly good track record, is protecting you.  So far they have intercepted the 7 missiles shot at Tel Aviv (or at least the dangerous ones; if it's going out to sea or into a field they don't try).  When I think of all the suffering on both sides it's so horrible.  Even though the news makes a big deal out of Tel Aviv being targeted, it's nothing compared to the devastation and death in the south (both Israel and Gaza).  Hopefully a truce will be reached before more innocent people die.

For some levity - here is a hilariously accurate comic of what it is like when the sirens sound here (and an example of why I think Tel Aviv is still in a bubble when it comes to this stuff).  Or maybe the joking is just something everyone does to try and be distracted from the reality of the situation which we have no control over.

Winter Fruit!

It's pomegranate and dragon fruit season again!

They are so nice and cheap here (compared to Canada anyway)

This is my fail at trying to get the seeds out.  Zach did a much better job.  The best way is to just take a wooden spoon and hit the outside of the pomegranate over a bowl and the seeds just fall out.  But when I tried, somehow it broke apart and flew all over the kitchen sending bright red juice everywhere...
Still tasty though :)  My next adventure will be to try making pomegranate martinis - the juice is sooo good (and very healthy).  I realize that a martini is not "very healthy", but with some pomegranate juice I think I could convince myself that it is.

My first dragon fruit!  It looks so much cooler than it tastes.  Sort of like a bland kiwi.  But maybe it wasn't fully ripe or something.  I'll have to try it again.  Easily wins for most awesome looking fruit.

One year in Israel

As of yesterday we have lived in Israel for a year now.  Just under one left to go! (or that's the plan for now...we all know how these things go...)  In hindsight, this year did pass pretty quickly, and I imagine the next one will as well.  Although as we get closer to the actual leave date I think that I will start to realize how much I am going to miss our walks to the sea, swimming in November, and just having easy access to sites that seem so inaccessible back home.

I remember reading some piece when I was young, probably in National Geographic, about how the Dead Sea was drying up and could disappear.  I remember the panic I felt that I might not ever get to swim in it and how it seemed totally impossible that I would ever visit Israel before I was super old and all the cool stuff would be gone! hah, oh the things that you stress about when you're little. So in some ways it's a little surreal still that we have been able to see and do all sorts of things out here, and I know that I'll cherish that once we go back.

From our family's visit last February, floating in the Dead Sea

Oh, and in case you are as neurotic as me, don't worry about the Dead Sea - environmentalism is just as big over here and there is now a joint project between Israel and Jordan to preserve sea levels.  Although if you ask me, the motivation is tourism, not the environment.  But hey, whatever works. :)

Night Running

One of the really great things about preparing for the Jerusalem half-marathon is that Zach and I have been discovering new paths and parts of our neighborhood as we search for more interesting running routes.  The other day we were stopped on one of our regular routes at the entrance to the beach by an army blockade including rolled barbed wire across the road!  This meant we had to quickly change plans and run in uncharted territory - hah.  But we discovered a really nice road that runs along the bluffs and then came back through a fancy neighborhood - all without getting lost :)

Yesterday was the first full thunderstorm we've had since last winter - yay!  The pouring rain and cool winds made the apartment smell sooo good - I love that stormy rain smell :)  The pictures below show some of the clouds around our apartment just before the storm came rolling in.

That night, after the storm was long gone we went out for a run and what a beautiful run it was!  The beach has a boardwalk from downtown Tel Aviv to our beach (and beyond...) and as we ran along it we could see the storm far out across the ocean with flashes of lightning lighting up the distant sky.  I wish I had a picture of it!  The boardwalk is also lit for a long time just by little lights along the ground so you still get the full effect of stars in the sky without the light pollution - it's amazing :) Stars, salty wind at your back, the fresh smell of rain and a distant thunderstorm over the ocean.  Love it.

 This picture is from one year ago - just after we moved here, on the boardwalk at the Port in Tel Aviv.  The storm from last night was not nearly as close as the one in the picture was!

Grande Prairie

It seems like I've been all over the place this past month!  I was just back in Canada again and got to spend a week with my family in Ontario, and then a week up in Grande Prairie!  Although it was amazing to see friends and family and spend more time in Canada, I have to say that spending 2 weeks half a world away from Zach was not so great!  Even though I live here and know full well that media totally misrepresents this part of the world (Israel) to North America, I still followed the news on Israel-Lebanon-Syria-Iran a lot more closely ... I guess I understand a bit more how our family, living so far away, can sometimes be concerned :)

But all that aside - what an amazing time we all had at Lindi's wedding!  I am so so happy that I was able to go - we even managed to have a reunion of the Pink Flamingos - seems like just yesterday we were all housemates in London! 

These are the details from Lindi and Russ's wedding - they are so crafty/artistic/talented!  It was a gorgeous rustic themed wedding - the weather was perfect too - sunny and warm, which is amazing considering that three days later it snowed!

 Coffee favours!  And look at those cute little owls :)

  And the pink flamingo traveled on to Grande Prairie... :)  

 Jen, Alyssa and I - it was such a gorgeous sunny day!

 Beautiful bride :)

Jen, Bronwen and I got to spend more time together on the way home!  Bronwen is such a little trooper - taking the long flights in stride.

Now it's back to work and training. Funny how even taking just two weeks off from running makes it hard to get back into it :)  We'll see what happens over Christmas holidays!